We tend to use things without thinking about them.
Has it ever occurred to you that every time you
listen to a CD or point with a laser pointer, you are
holding the discovery of a Nobel Prize Laureate in
Physics, in your hand? Well, if you haven't, you're
not really alone.

1964

Townes, Basov and Prokhorov shared the prize for their
fundamental work, which led to the construction of
lasers. They founded the theory of lasers and
described how a laser could be built, originating
from a similar appliance for microwaves called the
MASER that was introduced during the '50s (The MASER
has not been used as much as the laser).
However, the first functioning laser was not built by
them, but by Maiman in 1960.

How does this affect you?
This was the work that resulted in the big and rather
clumsy lasers built in the beginning of the '60s.
Still, their theory for the laser effect is the one
that fundamentally describes all lasers. Every time
you listen to a CD or point with a laser pointer, you
hold their discovery in your hand.

1971

Gabor (alone) was given
the prize, having founded the basic ideas of the
holographic method, which is a famous and spectacular
application of laser technology. At first "just" a
method of creating 3-D pictures, it has since become
a useful tool for the observation of vibrating
objects. Much of what we today know about how musical
instruments produce their tones is due to the use of
holograms.

How does this affect you?
In addition to holograms that can be bought and hung
on a wall, simpler holograms can be found on many
other things where you might not expect to find them.
Small holograms are present on many credit cards and
identity cards in order to make them more difficult
to forge.

1981

Bloembergen and Schawlow received the prize for their
contribution to the development of laser
spectroscopy. One typical application of this is
nonlinear optics which means methods of influencing
one light beam with another and permanently joining
several laser beams (not just mixing them - compare
the difference between mixing two substances and
making them chemically react with one another).

These phenomena mean that a
light beam can in principle be steered by another
light beam. If in the future someone intends to build
an optical computer (that could be much faster and
much more efficient in storing data), it would have
to be based on a nonlinear optic.

How does this affect you?
When using optical fibers, for example in broadband
applications, several of the switches and amplifiers
that are used require nonlinear optical
effects.

1997

Chu, Cohen-Tannoudji and Phillips et al.
received the prize for their developments of methods
to cool and trap atoms with laser light which is a
method for inducing atoms to relinquish their heat
energy to laser light and thus reach lower and lower
temperatures.

When their temperature sinks
very close to absolute zero, atoms form aggregates
(make clumps) in a way that reveals some of the
innermost aspects of nature. And that is the
important application of laser cooling, namely to
make us understand more of nature. Very soon after
the discovery other scientists started to use the
technique to further develop closely related
areas.

How does this affect you?
Short answer: Not at all, today.

When the laser came in 1960
no one, except for a small group of physicians, knew
anything about its applications. Laser technology was
a solution looking for its problem.

2000

Alferov and Kroemer were given the prize for their
development within the field of semiconductor
physics, where they had studied the type of
substances that was first used to build semiconductor
lasers, that is, the kind of miniature lasers that
today have become the cheapest, lightest and
smallest. The idea is to produce both the light
source and energy supply and place the mirrors in one
crystal (less than 1 mm facet, with many sequences).
This has become not only the basis for many cheap and
portable appliances, but also the foundation in
optical information networks.

How does this affect
you?
The CD player, laser writer, laser pointer and the
bar code reader the cashier at the supermarket uses,
are all based on their discovery.

Maser -
1954
The first papers about the maser were published
in 1954 as a result of investigations carried out
simultaneously and independently by Townes and his co-workers at
Columbia University in New York and by Basov and Prokhorov at the
Lebedev Institute in Moscow. Their work continued
throughout the '60s and the '70s.For this work they were awarded the
1964 Nobel Prize in Physics.
»

Laser -
1958
The optical maser or the laser dates from 1958,
when the possibilities of applying the maser
principle in the optical region were analyzed by Schawlow and Townes as well as in
the Lebedev Institute. Laser spectroscopy was
developed by Schawlow and his co-workers at
Stanford University and, around the same time, Bloembergen and his
co-workers developed nonlinear optics which is a
very special application of
laserspectroscopy.For this they were awarded the 1981
Nobel Prize in Physics. »

Ruby Laser -
1960
The first laser was operating in 1960. It was a
ruby laser generating strong pulses of red
light.

The physicist Albert Einstein had described
the theory of stimulated emission as early as
1917, but it would still take 30 years before
engineers began to utilize this principle for
practical purposes. Scientists were amazed by
this technical breakthrough but laser
technology itself had no real purpose. This is
not exceptional, discoveries may need time
before being put to use. Today laser is used in
communication, industry, medicine, and
environmental care and research. Laser has
become one of the most powerful tools for
scientists in physics, chemistry, biology and
medicine throughout the world. One area that is
considered to be very interesting is in the
different methods to cool and capture atoms by
using laser. We don't know yet what this
knowledge and technology will be used for in
the future, but we do know that future
applications will be based on today's
research.